Syracuse, N.Y. -- If there was a lesson learned during Thursday night's NBA Draft it may have been that if you leave the driving to a former sportswriter he just might steer the bus into a ditch.

Things could work out in Minnesota, sure. Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, each of whom needs the ball in his hands to be, well, Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio, may form a perfect backcourt union in an Odd Couple sort of way out there on the tundra. And they might make David Kahn, the one-time Portland Oregonian NBA writer who has graduated to president of the Timberwolves, look like a master basketball alchemist.

But do you really think so? Doesn't this look more Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey being asked to share the same microphone?

Who saw this coming? Who saw the 20-year-old Flynn and the 18-year-old Rubio suiting up in the same professional locker room? Who saw the feisty Syracuse University Orangeman teaming with the flashy Spanish teenager? Who saw the Timberwolves, winners of just 24 games last season and in need of help in a lot of areas, loading up at a single position with the fifth and sixth picks in David Stern's annual culling of the (mostly) college herd?

The Associated Press/Seth WenigOnce you shake the commissioner's hand, it's official . . . and it is for ex-Orange favorite Jonny Flynn. He's now in the NBA with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Apparently, Kahn did. And assuming he doesn't trade one or the other of his prized rookie point guards (and do not necessarily believe David's declarations that such is not his intention), he might be the only one.

Who knew, huh? Who knew that a lowly sportswriter could morph into so daring -- or so daft -- a front-office man? Moreover, who knew that a newspaper guy (albeit, a reformed one) would ever disagree with Jim Boeheim, Flynn's coach at SU?

Um, scratch that.

"He's a cocky little kid," Boeheim said of Rubio to Sporting News Magazine. "He's not a great shooter. I think he will have trouble guarding people. . . . I'm not sold on him. . . . My impression was less favorable than most people who've seen him, I guess."

Whatever, the 6-foot-4 Rubio is -- for the time being, anyway . . . and, remember, there is the whiff of a deal in the air -- Flynn's basketball buddy. And if Jonny and Ricky do stay together, those folks in Minnesota are going to be entertained.

Let's see. Minneapolis already has Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau (and a new park about to open) in baseball. It may soon be getting Brett Favre to go along with Adrian Peterson in football. And now it's being given Rubio, a highlight film rolling beneath a bad haircut, and Flynn, who is a 5-11 1/4 delight, in basketball.

"I'm a guy that's as hard as nails," Flynn declared on ESPN Thursday evening. "I'm not going to back down from anybody. I think that's the main thing. It's the size of this thing beating inside your chest and I definitely have a big one of them.

"(The Timberwolves) are getting a player that's going to come in every day, bring in high-level energy and work hard. And a guy that's going to go out there and have an overflowing passion for the game."

He doesn't lack for confidence. Never has. And now Jonny Flynn has a new best friend for life in the person of the shaggy Ricky Rubio. Or until David Kahn chooses to move one of his treasures for something that would seem to make a bit more sense.

Sportswriters.

Sportswriters running basketball operations.

Crazy times.

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(Bud Poliquin's column, his "To The Point" observations and his freshly-written on-line commentaries appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. Additionally, his work appears regularly on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. E-mail: bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)